After buying his two children, ages 11 and 13, smartphones last year, one father, Tim Farnum, is now flipping the script and attempting to ban pre-teens from using smartphones, as first reported by the Washington Post. The Colorado-based anesthesiologist, who initially bought his sons devices as gifts, observed intense behavioral changes in each of them after owning the smartphones for a short bit of time. Being a doctor and all, Farnum did some research into the plausible effects of smartphone use on the brain — and now he's ready to cut kids off from their beloved iPhones or Galaxies.

Farnum discovered that extended screen time doesn't just cause a straight-up lack of socialization (a given, if your head is buried in a phone), but can actually have some deteriorating, negative effects on children's brains as well. Research has shown that impair brain development, hinder social skills and trigger an unhealthy reliance on the neurotransmitter dopamine, a high similar to what drug and alcohol addicts feel. (There's also a great TED talk on how our smartphones trigger dopamine, if you've got a few minutes.)

Which totally makes sense, right? Which is why he and some colleagues in Colorado drafted legislation to establish age limits on smartphone sales to kids under 13, Colorado Ballot Initiative No. 29.

Reactions have been mixed from parents, kids, and even state senator John Kefalas, who told The Coloradan that he "thinks it should remain a family matter."

But if anyone under the age of 13 couldn't legally own a smartphone, things could get kinda ugly and snowball, as well, you know? Because while limiting screen time may have health benefits, it's also important to be connected to the world, to our friends, and to our families today
— and a lot of the time doing so involves our tech BFF. That alone makes a ban seem like not the best idea — or at least, as Sen. Kefalas suggests, we should leave it up to each family to make their own rules.